Business

Exports rise at fastest pace in 3 months in August; trade deficit narrows to $17.4 billion

Updated : September 14, 2018 07:22 PM IST

The country's exports rose at the fastest pace in three months to reach $27.84 billion in August on account of healthy growth in petroleum products, engineering, pharma, and gems and jewellery shipments.

Imports too grew by 25.41 percent in August to $45.24 billion due to costlier crude oil shipments.

In August, the growth rate in overseas shipments touched a three-month high of 19.21 per cent. Earlier in May, exports had recorded a growth of 20.18 percent.

Trade deficit during the month narrowed to $17.4 billion as against $12.72 billion in the same month last year, according to the data released by the commerce ministry Friday.

In July, the trade deficit soared to a near five-year high of $18.02 billion.

Exports of petroleum products, engineering, pharma and gems and jewellery in August rose by 43.25 percent, 31.81 percent, 28.52 percent and 34.76 percent respectively.

Oil imports in August grew by 51.62 percent to $11.83 billion and non-oil imports were up by 18.17 percent to $33.41 billion.

Gold imports in August jumped by 92.62 percent to $3.64 billion. The continuous fall in the value of domestic currency appears to be helping exports.

During April-August this fiscal, the exports recorded a growth of 16.13 percent to $136.09 billion, while imports during the first five months of this fiscal grew by 17.34 percent to $216.43 billion.

Trade deficit during the period widened to $80.35 billion as against $67.27 billion in the same period last year.

Oil imports during April-August this fiscal grew by 53.35 per cent to $58.81 billion and non-oil imports were up by 7.84 per cent to $157.62 billion.

The high trade deficit is one of the factors that dragged the rupee to below 70 levels.

The rupee touched an all-time low of 72.91 on September 12. Today it closed at 71.84 against the dollar.

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